What is composting?
Quick answer from Eartha
Composting is turning food scraps and garden waste into rich soil food. Worms, bugs and tiny microbes munch it all up over weeks or months. The compost that's left helps plants grow big and strong. It's nature's own recycling!
The longer story
Composting is a way of recycling things like fruit peels, vegetable scraps, eggshells and old leaves. Instead of throwing them in the bin, we put them in a compost bin or heap outside.
Inside the compost, tiny living things called microbes, along with worms and insects, break the scraps down. It's a bit like a slow, quiet feast that happens over weeks or months.
What's left behind is dark, crumbly compost, full of nutrients that plants love. Gardeners spread it on soil to help vegetables, flowers and trees grow healthier.
Many Australian councils also collect food and garden waste in a green-lid bin, which gets turned into compost at a big facility. Composting means less food waste in landfill, and happier gardens too.
Try this at home: Start a mini compost jar
- Put some fruit scraps and soil in a clear jar with a lid.
- Add a spray of water and pop it somewhere warm.
- Check it every few days and watch how it slowly changes.
Words to know
- Compost
- Rich, crumbly soil food made from old food scraps and plants.
- Microbe
- A living thing so tiny you need a microscope to see it.
For grown-ups: what is my child learning here?
Age band: 5-8
Curriculum link: Australian Curriculum v9 Science, AC9SFI04
The concept: Organic waste can be broken down by living things and returned to the soil as a resource.
More classroom ideas are on our teachers page, and safety notes for families are on for parents.
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